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A former Edinburg couple who smuggled people illegally present in the United States and held three against their will while forcing them to work have been sentenced, according to court documents.
Eduardo Javier Gomez, 32, and his former partner Margarita Alvarez, 42, were sentenced Monday morning on forced labor charges after the family of the people who were held against their will contacted authorities in 2021.
Gomez was sentenced to nearly six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release while Alvarez was sentenced to two years probation. The remaining forced labor charges were dropped as well as the hostage taking charge against Gomez.
On March 1 last year, the couple pleaded guilty to benefiting from forced labor from June 24 until July 8, 2021.
According to the criminal complaint, the two were arrested after Homeland Security Investigation special agents learned that they forced three family members — two men and one woman — to babysit and do housework; to work at a fireworks stand; and to sell drugs outside of a bar.
The New York Police Department had been in contact with one of the family member’s sisters, who said the family paid the smugglers $4,500 for each family member to be brought into the U.S.
Upon the trio’s arrival, the smugglers told the sister’s husband that they needed to pay $12,000 to smuggle them to Houston. The smugglers requested $6,000 to initiate the trip and an additional $6,000 once they arrived at the city.
“Rather than smuggling (the three family members) to Houston, the smugglers transferred (the trio) to another smuggler…” the complaint said.
The trio were taken to Gomez in Edinburg.
According to the sister, once the trio arrived, Gomez took their phones away and the only way she could reach them was through him.
Her husband refused to send additional money, so Gomez said he would put the family to work in order to pay off their smuggling fees.
The complaint states the family members spoke “an indigenous dialect” as well as Spanish and used it to communicate with the sister and her husband through Gomez’s phone.
That’s how the sister learned that her family members were forced to work for Gomez.
Gomez had them working as a babysitter and cleaning up his home. In addition, two of the family members were forced to work at a firework stand and the other was forced to sell drugs outside a bar called Los Amigos in Edinburg.
As the investigation unfolded, all three were rescued.
